Why is Europe Vastly More Secular Than America?

[Runner]

I hope this is the right place to ask this question.  It's not exactly a question of philosophy, or theology, although it deals with religion.  Why is Europe so secular in comparison to America?  How did this come about?  Why does America seem more swayed by religion in politics than the vast majority of European countries?

[udo]

That's an excellent question, especially since we're taught in school about how our forefathers crossed the ocean to escape religious persecution.
My only guess is that the Americans aren't told that our leaders are appointed by God, and then executed them during the rebellion.  That tends to get leaders' attentions.

[Runner]

Ha!     That's one way to look at it.  In a twisted way, you might be on to something.  Perhaps it is the simple fact that Europe has seen thousands of years of bloodshed over religion that drove them to secularism.  They have seen the dark side of religion in its many forms.  From the Inquisition to the Crusades to Northern Ireland's ongoing strife.  America has been largely insulated from these types of horrors.

[Maximus]

European society is much older than ours.  With that very obvious proposition in place, perhaps I can build off of the comments of Runner and Udo.  The statement that Europeans have some collective memory of atrocities committed in the name of religion is very likely.  Europe has dealt with religious warfare since well before the 10th Century AD.  That's quite a bit of history.     

Consider also that Europe effectively pushed many "fringe" religious groups to America.  Many religious groups came to America not because our country was truly secular, but precisely because they would be free to worship as they chose.  In other words, some of the most severe off-shoots of Christianity took root in our country.  I'm thinking not only of the Puritans, but also of waves of Scandinavian immigrants who belonged to severe sects loosely tied with the Lutherans.  Then there are the Amish and the Mennonites.  Homegrown religious sects also blossomed -- the Shakers, the Quakers, the Mormons.  So my point is this:  not only were unusually religious people drawn to the US precisely because the could worship as they chose, but the freedom of religion offered by the US also spurred the development of many home-grown religious offshoots.  This might help explain why the US is more religious than Europe. 

Let's also not forget about the US's illustrious history of campfire revivals and events that cater to a mass audience.  These revivals helped spur the growth of so-called Evangelical Christianity.

[FPENA98]

I think the lack of any dominating religion in the U.S., like the Church of England in Britain, the Catholic Church in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, etc., has allowed there to be more competition among many different faiths here in the U.S. in their search for faithful.  A very institutionalized church is very slow to change--the Catholic Church was still performing mass exclusively in LATIN until the 1960s before the Second Vatican Council even though the language had been a dead tongue for hundreds of years!  Many smaller and more nimble churches are able to tailor many of their religious traditions to attract and keep more faithful, this leads to more vibrant religious groups which maintain their relevance in our society and with people--think of the Evangelicals or the new breed of mega-preachers who preach to 20,000 to 30,000 people at a time and whose services seem to be more a concert than a traditional religious service.  Also, let's not forget that our country is much more socially and politically conservative than Europe.  Europe is far more leftist bordering on being Socialist in many cases.  I guess one could argue whether our political ideology is a result of or a cause of our strong religious values but I think it is more the result than the cause.  I guess it depends on who we're talking about, many American Catholics are considered "cafeteria Catholics" because they pick and choose only those aspects of their faith they agree with, abortion, contraception, gay marriage, etc.  Evangelicals and Baptists to name just two tend to be much more conservative and in their case religion tends to influence their politics more than politics influences their religion at least that's the common perception.  I guess what I'm saying is that this is a very complicated question with many different aspects to it than can't be quickly answered.

[JohnP]

I was raised as a cafeteria Catholic.  It always frustrated me that I had to compartmentalize aspects of the faith in order to find it acceptable.  It also made me wonder at what point I ceased becoming a real Catholic. 

I think that as the previous poster said, the advent of mass entertainment as religion has greatly boosted religious nature of the US.  The thought of a congregation having 20,000 members just blows my mind.  That would be several small villages in France.

[FPENA98]

As a side note, it is kind of difficult to watch television and not eventually come across some of these mega-church preachers and I must admit I sometimes watch.  I've noticed that there's one theme that keeps popping between all of them regarding the end of the world.  Each preacher has their own version of what is going to happen, however, all seem to agree on one thing, that the end of the world is coming soon and one should be ready.  I've been hearing this from these same people for years and this has been a common theme in Christianity for millenia, however the only thing that seems to change are the actors in the storyline.  In the 1980s it was Iran, Lybia, the PLO, and the UN.  Now they seem to have a fascination with Israel and so now the storyline involves Iran, Iraq, Israel, Al-Queda, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the UN, the EU, in the year 999 it was the coming of the year 1000 and in 1999 it was the coming of hte year 2000.  The point is that many of these preachers seem to forget or conveniently forget that they've been proclaiming the end of the world for years now and while they don't know when they know it is close.  It just strikes me, do the congregations of these churches ever question some of these predictions, I guess these preachers will eventually be right the end of the world will come, when each individual member of their congregation keels over and dies of old age or something!

[DR]

I find this equally ludicrous.  Seventh Day Adventists are notorious for predicting the End of the World, and then conveniently revising their prediction when the End Times fail to materialize.  Some Christian denominations think that Christ will come to Earth before the End Times (pre-millennial dispensation), while others believe Christ will come at the end of the final conflict between the wicked and the righteous (post-millennial dispensation).  Either way, only the good will be whisked off to Heaven.  There was an absurd film that became hugely popular and was widely circulated in the 70s or early 80s on this theme.  I wish I could remember the name of it.  I was in England at the time, but I remember reading about it, and then later watching it.  I'll see if I can't drum up the name of the film.

I agree that watching the mega-preachers is strangely entertaining.

[Samantha]

Isn't it dispensational premillenialism?  Just had to ask.  Not sure if that's any different than premillenial dispensation.  That's a philosophy question in a of itself. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_times

By the way, that is a great link for End Times material.  Apparently various faiths embrace the concept.  Read up on Ragnarok for my favorite version.  Pure masculinity and oh so dark.

[udo]

DR, are you referring to the "Left Behind" series?  I've heard those are excellent.